“What?” demanded Philip, puzzled by the other's attitude.
“Well, you see, I went first to Nelson House,” said McGill, “and from there up to the Hudson's Bay Company's post in the Cochrane River, hunting for Falkner and this girl—a man and a woman. And at the Cochrane Post a Frenchman told me that there was a strange man and woman up at Lac Bain, and I set off for there. That must have been just about the time you were starting for Churchill, for on the third day up I met a sledge that turned me off the Lac Bain trail to take up the nearer trail to Chippewayan. With this sledge were the two who had been at Lac Bain, Colonel Becker and his daughter.”
For a moment Philip could not speak. He caught the other's hand excitedly.
“You—you found where they were going?” he asked, when McGill did not continue.
“Yes. We ate dinner together, and the colonel said they were bound for Nelson House, and that they would probably go from there to Winnipeg. I didn't ask which way they would go.”
“From Nelson House it would be by the Saskatchewan and Le Pas trail,” cried Philip. He was looking straight over the little doctor's head. “If it wasn't for this damnable DeBar—whom I ought to go after again—”
“Drop DeBar,” interrupted McGill quietly. “He's got too big a start of you anyway—so what's the use? Drop 'im. I dropped a whole lot of things when I came up here.”
“But the law—”
“Damn the law!” exploded the doctor with unexpected vehemence. “Sometimes I think the world would be just as happy without it.”
Their eyes met, sharp and understanding.